The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops denounced President Barack Obama's compromise over whether to require religiously affiliated institutions to provide contraception to female employees, saying the proposal raises "serious moral concerns," according to a statement posted on its website late Friday.

"Today's proposal continues to involve needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions, and to threaten government coercion of religious people and groups to violate their most deeply held convictions," the statement said.

Under the new plan announced by Obama Friday, religiously affiliated universities and hospitals will not be forced to offer contraception coverage to their employees. Insurers will be required, however, to offer complete coverage free of charge to any women who work at such institutions. Women who work at churches, though, will have no guarantee of such contraception coverage - a continuation of current law.

News of the compromise came after days of escalating partisan and ideological rhetoric over the divisive issue. The White House originally wanted to require hospitals and schools with religious ties to offer full contraception coverage. Many Catholic leaders and other religious groups strongly oppose any requirement for contraception coverage on theological grounds.

soundoff(103 Responses)

I didn't pray for leukemia but I got it children die everyday new souls in this sometimes very cruel world what kind of god does that I'm sure you'll say the sins of the father or it just wasn't gods plan or if we were better Christians then we wouldn't be punished or our faith was being tested and to all of you I say what a cruel child of a god you have that' tests his flock he so lovingly created excuse after excuse I'll keep my faith in the science that put my cancer in remission and if I'm wrong I'll march straight into hell knowing I made no excuses

Want my vote? Disband the catholic church The days of the Vatican controlling government is over look at there history educate yourselfs god doesn't need your money

February 13, 2012 at 2:34 pm |

dats right

STHU already and go molest another little boy.

February 13, 2012 at 10:59 am |

Reality

Only for the newbies.

One does not need Planned Parenthood to teach our kids about s-ex. Simply read and have your kids read the following:

WARNING!!! WARNING!!! WARNING!!! -–>

The failures of the widely used birth "control" methods i.e. the Pill ( 8.7% failure rate, one million unplanned pregnancies) and male con-doms (17.4% failure rate, another one million unplanned pregnancies ) have led to the large rate of abortions and S-TDs in the USA. Se-xually active teens, young adults and adults must either recognize their responsibilities by using the Pill or co-ndoms properly and/or use safer methods in order to reduce the epidemics of abortion and S-TDs.- Failure rate statistics provided by the Gut-tmacher Inst-itute.

Added information before making your next move:

from the CDC-2006

"Se-xually transmitted diseases (STDs) remain a major public health challenge in the United States. While substantial progress has been made in preventing, diagnosing, and treating certain S-TDs in recent years, CDC estimates that approximately 19 million new infections occur each year, almost half of them among young people ages 15 to 24.1 In addition to the physical and psy-ch-ological consequences of S-TDs, these diseases also exact a tremendous economic toll. Direct medical costs as-sociated with STDs in the United States are estimated at up to $14.7 billion annually in 2006 dollars."

And from:

Consumer Reports, January, 2012

"Yes, or-al se-x is se-x, and it can boost cancer risk-

Here's a crucial message for teens (and all se-xually active "post-teeners": Or-al se-x carries many of the same risks as va-ginal se-x, including human papilloma virus, or HPV. And HPV may now be overtaking tobacco as the leading cause of or-al cancers in America in people under age 50.

"Adolescents don’t think or-al se-x is something to worry about," said Bonnie Halpern-Felsher professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. "They view it as a way to have intimacy without having 's-ex.'" (i.e. the Bill Clinton Syndrome)

Obviously, Planned Parenthood, parents and the educational system has failed on many fronts.

(note: some words hyphenated because of an obvious word filter)

February 12, 2012 at 11:19 pm |

Atheism is not healthy for children and other living things

Prayer changes things,

February 12, 2012 at 5:43 pm |

Karen

Prove it. Present even one case that stands up to investigation.

February 12, 2012 at 6:22 pm |

HotAirAce

Karen, this fool has been in "write only" mode for several weeks. Best to just ignore "him."

February 12, 2012 at 6:30 pm |

just sayin

once again
George Frederick Muller
check him out, Karen

February 13, 2012 at 10:54 am |

captain america

hotairace is a butt in canadian whose opinion has all the relevance of day old dog sh it. There's your sign

February 13, 2012 at 10:56 am |

Nope

!!The statistical studies from the nineteenth century and the three CCU studies on prayer are quite consistent with the fact that humanity is wasting a huge amount of time on a procedure that simply doesn’t work. Nonetheless, faith in prayer is so pervasive and deeply rooted, you can be sure believers will continue to devise future studies in a desperate effort to confirm their beliefs."""""`~~~~

February 13, 2012 at 10:56 am |

Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son

Prove that prayer was the causative factor in Muller's accomplishments, lying.

February 13, 2012 at 11:27 am |

Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son

<bMüller prayed about everything and expected each prayer to be answered. One example was when one of the orphan house's boiler stopped working; Müller needed to have it fixed. Now this was a problem, because the boiler was bricked up and the weather was worsening with each day. So he prayed for two things; firstly that the workers he had hired would have a mind to work throughout the night, and secondly that the weather would let up. On the Tuesday before the work was due to commence, a bitter north wind still blew but in the morning, before the workmen arrived, a southerly wind began to blow and it was so mild that no fires were needed to heat the buildings. That evening, the foreman of the contracted company attended the site to see how he might speed things along, and instructed the men to report back first thing in the morning to make an early resumption of work. The team leader stated that they would prefer to work through the night. The job was done in 30 hours.[24]

Now, just lying, where is the proof that prayer "made" anything here happen?

Do you think weather is somehow changed by prayer? If so, why are the Bible-banger states consistently flattened by tornadoes?

Do you think people never worked through the night to accomplish something unless prayer "made" them do it? Nonsense. There are millions of people who are devoted to their jobs and work long hours to accomplish tasks-such as scientists who are overseeing experiments and studies which must be monitored over long periods of time. Do you think they are praying? What evidence do you have to prove it? Cite it.

The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.